There is a lot to consider during a divorce. If you and your former partner have come to a financial agreement about what you want to happen with your money and assets, this can be written up into a consent order. While this may seem like an unnecessary expense, this document is highly important in making your agreement legally binding.
Consent orders record what a divorcing couple have agreed to do about their finances. Having a formal agreement means that your former partner cannot make claims of you further down the line, long after your marriage has ended.
The document sets out what should be done with all of your assets. This includes your money, property, debts, investments and pensions. It may also include spousal maintenance and child maintenance.
You request a consent order after the Decree Nisi stage of proceedings. It usually takes the court 12 weeks to get to Decree Nisi, though this will vary in different parts of the UK. However, if possible, it is our advice that you look into this as soon as you initiate divorce proceedings to save time.
If you wait until decree absolute, you can still get a consent order divorce, but there can be implications. This is because you will no longer be spouses or civil partners, so you might not be entitled to have trust funds or pension funds transferred to you.
A financial order by consent means that you and your former partner can not apply to the court to get more money from each other in the future. Hence, some solicitors call them clean break consent order.
In the UK, the children stage and the financial stage are kept separate in divorce proceedings. You can draft a different type of consent order in a C100 form for your children, covering where they will live, how they will spend time with their parents, and how they will have contact. This part of the divorce process is completely separate to the financial part.
If you wait until decree absolute, you can still get a consent order divorce, but there can be implications. This is because you will no longer be spouses or civil partners, so you might not be entitled to have trust funds or pension funds transferred to you.
A financial order by consent means that you and your former partner can not apply to the court to get more money from each other in the future. Hence, some solicitors call them clean break consent order.
In the UK, the children stage and the financial stage are kept separate in divorce proceedings. You can draft a different type of consent order in a C100 form for your children, covering where they will live, how they will spend time with their parents, and how they will have contact. This part of the divorce process is completely separate to the financial part.
You can do this, but it is risky as you can’t be sure the other party will not apply to change what you have agreed together later. You cannot guarantee your relationship with your ex will remain amicable, or there might be circumstances outside both of your control, like one of you loses your job or becomes ill. Further, you cannot agree to transfer pensions to another person without a court order.
A clean break means that both parties can’t claim entitlement to each other’s finances anymore, including their estates after they die. This means both parties are no longer dependent on each other and can move on with their lives and put their marriage behind them. You can put clean break clauses into your consent order so you both cannot make any more claims.